Capitone

So is the Capitone

The adult female specimen of the eel is called capitone.

It is a migratory fish - with an extremely complex life cycle - which lives in fresh (or brackish) inland waters and reproduces in the salty ones of the central-southern Atlantic Ocean;

in Italy, the capitone is consumed mainly during the Christmas period but, in certain specific locations (e.g. the Emilian coast of the Adriatic coast, Verona and Brescia along the Garda lake, etc.), it is a product that is widely consumed in all seasons of the "year and that (on average) reaches a retail price between € 28 and € 45 per kilogram.

Description and Biology

The binomial nomenclature of the capitone is Eel eel, otherwise called European eel (although it is also present in northern Africa), which differs from the "American eel (A. rostrata) for the Species to which it belongs; It is curious to note that, despite large differences in the genetic trait, all three eels migrate and reproduce in the same place: the sea of Sargassi.
The capitone is a predatory fish but almost omnivorous (it is not uncommon for specimens to be caught with a belly full of corn used for carp fishing), and feeds mainly on: molluscs, crustaceans, fish, worms, annelids and decaying meat .
The capitone should reach, with respect to the male of the eel (even if there are still strong doubts about the sexual dysmorphism of this fish), dimensions three times higher. The most common size of the capitone for food purposes is about 1kg per 75-100cm; it commonly reaches even 2kg but exceptionally it can exceed 3kg, touching 5-6kg of weight.
The capitone has a cylindrical and elongated shape, similar to a snake; its skin is smooth and mucus-rich, with tiny flakes cycloids ellipticals (2.0-2.5 x 0.6-0.7mm) arranged in irregular groups all over the body. The head of the capitone is slightly flattened, provided with: small eyes (which develop with maturation and migration) mainly used in the capture of light, modest gill slits, two nostrils placed at the top and a powerful and prognathic mandible that projects beyond the jaws; the teeth are conical and all the same. The pectoral fins are not very developed, the anal fin is long and joins the caudal one (diflocerca), which extends further over the back with the dorsal one. In the capitons that mature in inland waters or in the valley, the skin is brown or green on the rump and yellow on the belly, while in the capitones migrating towards the Sargasso it is black on the back and white on the belly. The capitone is a fish with an incredibly powerful musculature.
Other differences between maturing and traveling fish are: the size of the scales (which increases in the migrating capitone), the width of the head (which decreases in the migrating capitone), the development of the pectoral fins (which increases in the migrating capitone) and "importance of the adipose tissue (which decreases in the migrating capitone). The migrating eel is also called Argentine eel.